A Dose of Sanity : Mind, Medicine, and Misdiagnosis

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and Terrifying
Review: Dr. Walker's book is a stern indictment of the contemporary medical profession and the mental health field in particular. He charges the majority of psychiatrists of ignoring the true needs of their patients and instead practicing and arbitrary pseudo-science of labeling. They seem to have given up on the idea (fundamental to the philosophy of science)that all events have a cause and that to understand something we must understand the process of cause and effect that brought it into being. Most modern psychiatrists are not interested in finding out what is wrong through careful methodology. They are divided into two camps. The psychoanalytic types deny a medical cause for abnormal feelings and behaviour altogether (however, they still want the prestige that comes with being a medical doctor!). They look everything from a bad childhood to alien abductions to explain such things as psychosis and manic depression, even though no scientific study has ever proven the theories on which their claims are based. The next group, the standard issue biopsychiatrists are a little more up to date. They would admit the obvious scientific truth that someone who hears voices or is immobilized by a deep depression is psysically ill. However, they drop the ball as well. Most biologically based psychiatrists give very vague answers about the causes of mental illness, and rely on a few biological treatments which are tried on the patient almost randomly until one seems to "work". For instance, a depressed person will be given one antidepressant drug after another without the doctor even stopping to consider that the deprssion may result from anemia, a thyroid imbalance, poor nutrition or a host of other causes. Many psyciatric patients today are not even given a blood test, an EEG or any other genuine medical test before traetment is prescribed. Walker points out that until people are given a battery of tests, we will never really know what is wrong with them. Prozac or tranquilizers may make the! m feel better temporatily, but they could be literally dying. He also attacks the concepts of hypochodndria and facetious disorder. For the most part, he argues, these are destructive labels used to protect doctors and stigmatized patients ("if I can't figure out what is wrong with you then it is all in you're head and/or you are just making it up") While I don't agree with all his points (for instance, his extreme anti-prozac position) I must say that this book is must reading for anyone in need of mental health care.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo,Dr.Walker! We need more men like you in Toronto!
Review: I have been through many psychiatrists over the years,and most of them are a disgrace to an honorable profession! Dr.Walker's book remains unsurpassed in his pragmatic,and sensitively written expose of Freudian Psychiatrists,whose only understanding of human/family relations,seems to come only from outdated books,and not from real life! Most psychiatrists babble in "Talk Therapy",which,in my opinion,doesn't help the family structure.(It actually makes things worse.) There is a very prominent Toronto psychiatrist,of high reputation;all I can osay,Dr.Walker,is he could learn alot from your book!

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but left me wanting more
Review: I have just re-read this moving and very sensitively written book. It is so no-judge-mental about people! Which is what I have long wished that most "Shrinks" would actually be!! Legends like Dr.Sydney Walker and E.Fuller Torrey,as well as Oliver Sacks,are a vanishing species!! Yes,I do agree that "Talk Therapy" does harm!! Also:that not involving or seeing the other members of the patient's family-the doctor can't possibly get the full picture. I'm afraid that Dr.Walker(and Drs.Sacks/Torrey) are Beethovens/Bachs/Mozarts-compared to their fellow Drs,who might resemble these three composers:Franz Xaverier Mozart(Mozart's Son),Siegfried Wagner(Wagner's son) and John Cage!

Rating:
Summary: Still a fine work,sad that Dr.Walker is not alive now.
Review: I keep re-reading this fine book. Even though it is somewhat out of date. It is sad that Dr.Walker is no longer alive to continue his valuable work. I would agree that modern psychiatrists have their limitations and that the field has begun seem slightly out of date. The modern psychiatrists don't involve the family,their expertise is narrow. Dr.Walker was a sage,a giant amongst men. The Beethoven amongst psychiatrists!! Without him,the unstable family dynamics are not treated as a unit. Thus healing is no longer possible. His book remains a required read,but his art is now lost.

Rating:
Summary: Still a fine work,sad that Dr.Walker is not alive now.
Review: I keep re-reading this fine book. Even though it is somewhat out of date. It is sad that Dr.Walker is no longer alive to continue his valuable work. I would agree that modern psychiatrists have their limitations and that the field has begun seem slightly out of date. The modern psychiatrists don't involve the family,their expertise is narrow. Dr.Walker was a sage,a giant amongst men. The Beethoven amongst psychiatrists!! Without him,the unstable family dynamics are not treated as a unit. Thus healing is no longer possible. His book remains a required read,but his art is now lost.

Rating:
Summary: Still a moving and sensitively written book-out of date
Review: It has been a few years since Dr.Walker's untimely death. No doctor or psychiatrist has addressed the concerns of patients in a way like Dr.Walker. Unfortunately,since Dr.Walker's death,this book is rather out of date. Nothing has been said about living and surving and coping with family members who are depressed,don't stay on their medication,and the profound emotional burnout caretakers suffer. Most doctors and psychiatrists today don't treat the family as a unit. There was one rather magnificent psychiatrist,Dr.Ed Pakes,he is an unsung hero,esp to this writer. There is another super-aloof South African Canadian psychiatrist,who because he treated Bouchard,thinks he's Oliver Sacks. Wouldn't we all be better off if we had someone like Oscar Levant,Beethoven as a "Shrink"?

Rating:
Summary: This book still has so much to say!
Review: It's quite sad to know that Dr.Walker is no longer living. His pioneering and timely book,senstively and written with great depth and understanding of patients and their bio-chemical weakness,asks questions that can no longer be answered today. There doesn't seem to be another Dr.Sidney Walker. I'm afraid,as a long-time patient of psychiatrists,that none or few of these "Shrinks" can equal Dr.Walker,Dr.Torrey,Dr.Oliver Sacks,in how they are able to understand and treat their patients and the family unit. Most fail. In Toronto,there are some very distinguished psychiatrists: Dr.Ed Pakes, Dr.Robin Brooks-Hill,Dr.V.Rakoff. Are they in Dr.Walker's class? Only time will till. This book should be required reading by not only psychiatrists,but all medical doctors. And family too. Yes,it is out of date,and lacking in certain info,but you can't have everything. Some of the late Dr.Walker's judgements may not be correct,but these reflect my own emotional and intellectual feelings.

Rating:
Summary: This book should be required reading by psychiatrists
Review: This book should be required reading by all psychiatrists. There is still so much to learn from this maverick psychiatrist. Dr.Sydney Walker 111 was an unforgettable and unique and towering giant,we will not find another Dr.Sydney Walker again!! The closest thing to another Dr.Walker in Canada might be the ill-fated Dr.Ed Pakes,a brilliant pioneer bereavement psychiatrist. There is also Dr.Robin Brooks-Hill. Then there is an aloof South African "Shrink",and his son,who wrote some book called "Freud". (Obviously that isn't really the correct title,but it is a free country) Besides,why see Dr.Aloof Shrink when you can watch Meryl Streep films on Video. Bouchard is no longer a power,Richler is dead,Where is Trudeau or Lon Chaney Jr when we need him?

Rating:
Summary: This book should be required reading by psychiatrists
Review: This book should be required reading by all psychiatrists. There is still so much to learn from this maverick psychiatrist. Dr.Sydney Walker 111 was an unforgettable and unique and towering giant,we will not find another Dr.Sydney Walker again!! The closest thing to another Dr.Walker in Canada might be the ill-fated Dr.Ed Pakes,a brilliant pioneer bereavement psychiatrist. There is also Dr.Robin Brooks-Hill. Then there is an aloof South African "Shrink",and his son,who wrote some book called "Freud". (Obviously that isn't really the correct title,but it is a free country) Besides,why see Dr.Aloof Shrink when you can watch Meryl Streep films on Video. Bouchard is no longer a power,Richler is dead,Where is Trudeau or Lon Chaney Jr when we need him?

Rating:
Summary: Much more sensible than most books critical of the field.
Review: This is not the first book I've read that is critical of psychiatry. But compared to Caplan, Breggin, and Szasz, this is the most sensible critique I've seen. Usually, in the anti-psychiatry literature one finds inexcusible nonsequiturs. For example: "Psychiatrists often don't realize that the medication is causing the disorder (good point). Therefore, biological psychatry is unsound (bad point)." Or "Psychiatric illnesses are voted on by committee (good point), therefore there is no such thing as mental illness (bad point)." Walker avoids making such obvious nonsequiturs. Far from being against biological psychiatry, Walker argues that current psychiatry is not biological enough. It appeals to highly hypothetical conditions (such as neurotransmitter disorders) while ignoring known conditions (such as pin worms or hypothyroidism). Some might think that this is all that Walker is saying, but his general point seems to be that since psychiatrists are taught to run through symptoms lists instead of being medical detectives, there a lot of unknown conditions which they are failing to discover. He briefly admits the possibility that even someone who is cognitively and emotionally sound could be judged mentally ill. Even someone suffering from a "problem in living" could be diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia, for example. A disturbing possibility which perhaps could have been better stressed in the book. Nonetheless, an excellent book that deserves plenty of serious attention.